The national Make It With Wool competition (MIWW) promotes wool’s beauty and versatility and recognizes excellence and creativity in garment sewing and knitting. Garments must be made from fashion fabrics and yarns that are at least 60 percent wool-including specialty fibers, such as mohair, alpaca, camel, and llama. Contestants compete in skill categories and age groups: 13- to 16-year-olds compete as juniors; those 17 to 24 compete as seniors; and 25 and over compete as adults. State winners advance to the national judging round, which is in January. The Adult and Fashion/Apparel Design winners are preselected and receive all-expenses-paid trips to the national competition to model their creations. Here, Threads highlights seven individuals who won awards in the January 2016 national judging round.

National Adult Winner

Carol Macy
Pine Bluffs, Wyoming

A five-time competitor, Carol says she has become more creative through participating in MIWW. She likes to make bold statements with her clothes and often uses piping as a detail. Her winning garments bear these design preferences. Carol used Simplicity 1759 to make a black cashmere coat, which she lined with a deep red printed silk. She machine-embroidered the coat’s back waist insert and collar, mirroring the embroidery placement on the left and right collars for a designer finish. Heavy corded piping defines the seams joining the collar to the coat. She also sewed bound buttonholes, a difficult task in her lofty fabric. Carol’s fit-and-flare dress, based on Vogue 8972, was made in striated black Pendleton wool suiting. Its bodice and midriff seams are accented with a flat piping made from the coat’s silk lining fabric. Hong Kong bindings finish the dress’s seam allowances.
-Stephani L. Miller

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